An overview on the tribological behavior of diamond-like carbon in technical and medical applications

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings are a class of materials and, depending on the deposition conditions and the tribological system, different outstanding tribological properties can be obtained. The most important subclasses of DLC are hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) and hydrogen free tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C). When DLC slides against a metal, the formation of the so-called transfer layer on the metallic counterpart can protect the metal from further wear. Adhesion and cohesion of this transfer layer is a critical issue and is also influenced by the environmental atmosphere including the relative humidity. When DLC is running against a hard and chemically inert counterface, such as sapphire, the formation of a transfer layer is not observed but low wear is still obtained. This is attributed to the lubricating properties of the graphitic wear residues. Due to its unique combination of properties, DLC is already used in different industrial applications such as magnetic storage media, diesel injection pumps, sliding bearings, car valve rockers, gears, tappets of racing motorcycles, laser barcode scanner windows in supermarkets, VCR head drums, textile industry parts, motor cycle forks, razor blades, etc. In medical applications, i.e. the coating of load bearing joints that slide against ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), the different in vitro experiments apparently showed contradicting results, mainly due to the different experimental setups and especially the different liquids used as lubricants. However, when DLC slides against DLC in medical applications low wear rates could be demonstrated in different in vitro tests.